Completed Projects
Delivering Cleaner Cooking Technology to Rural Mexico
In Mexico, the use of open-fire stoves is common among marginalized populations and as a result, on average, 4% of
households cook using firewood, according to the Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography. Women and children bear the brunt of negative impacts, spending up to 10 hours a week gathering fuel for cooking — time that could be better spent studying or taking care of other important family needs. On top of it, women and girls breathe harmful smoke while cooking, which can lead to health impacts like cataracts, cancer, lung and heart disease.
The Sempra Foundation partnered with Fundación Mozcalti to support the distribution of portable, cleaner cookstoves to 2,397 households across 28 communities in five states: six communities in Baja California Norte, three in Chihuahua, nine in Nuevo Leon, five in Morelos, and five in Puebla. More than 20,000 people benefitted from the project, which was completed in November 2021. Today, these communities use their cookstoves to earn money for their families, while helping to avoid dangerous cooking conditions.
Bringing Relief During Unprecedented Gulf Coast Storm
In February of 2021, for the first time in recorded history, all 254 counties in the state of Texas fell under a winter weather advisory. An unprecedented winter storm brought sub-freezing temperatures, heavy snow and ice to Texas and across the Gulf Coast, leaving families under rolling power outages, with little or no indoor heating, and at times, no running water.
As the weather improved, Texans dealt with the aftermath of the storm for months, with millions of people under boil-water orders due to frozen pipes that burst in the extreme cold. Grocery stores’ stocks were depleted as supply chain challenges delayed deliveries.
In response, Sempra Foundation stepped up to assist communities in need, providing $1 million to nonprofit organizations engaged in delivering bottled water and food supplies, and rescuing people from the cold.
Providing COVID-19 Pandemic Assistance
With more than 20% of all U.S. COVID-19 cases concentrated in California and Texas, and another 3 million cases in Mexico, the pandemic quickly became a funding priority for the Foundation. These places are where our 19,000+ employees live and work.
Since the pandemic started, the Foundation and the Sempra family of companies have donated more than $14 million in COVID-related assistance to a wide range of essential services, including hunger relief, support services and bill assistance programs for low-income individuals and families, hygiene items, medical equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE), education and childcare services for first responders.
In total, 185 organizations from California, Texas and Louisiana received $1.75 million in support from the Foundation’s Nonprofit Hardship Fund; an additional $500,000 was directed to communities in Texas in partnership with the Oncor Cares Foundation.
Supporting Victims of Natural Disasters
In August of 2020, hundreds of wildfires erupted across California, burning more than one million acres of land and forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes. Sempra Foundation contributed $250,000 in relief aid via the Cal-Fire Foundation.
Just weeks later, on August 27, Hurricane Laura made landfall near Cameron Parish, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane, and left a path of destruction along the border of Louisiana and Texas. Sempra Foundation immediately announced a $500,000 commitment to Hurricane Laura relief efforts to help support people in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana.
Then, in early October, Hurricane Delta made landfall in southwest Louisiana, devastating many of the towns and cities a second time.
Sempra Foundation and the Sempra family of companies donated more than $1 million to help communities and employees recover and rebuild from these disasters.